Growth control of Australian acacias

This thesis describes the research aimed to produce a small flowering pot plant of Acacia less than 35 cm high with more than 50 inflorescenses within twenty four months, a potted foliage plant less than 35 cm high within twelve months or a flowering tub plant less than 1m high with more than 50 inflorescences within thirty six months. This study produces a protocol for production of flowering pot plants of A. acinacea using a comination of pruning and paclobutrazol.Thesis (M.Ag.Sc.) -- University of Adelaide, Dept. of Horticulture, Viticulture and Oenology, 199

Health Behaviors, Knowledge, Life Satisfaction, and Wellbeing in People with Mental Illness across Four Countries and Comparisons with Normative Sample

Background: People with chronic mental illness have poorer physical health and higher mortality than the general population. We investigated lifestyle factors in people with mental illness across four countries and compared with a normative sample. Design and methods: Data were collected from N=672 people (Germany, n=375; Palestine, n=192; London, n=63; Australia, n=42) with substance abuse disorder (n=224), schizophrenia (n=158), mood disorders (n=227) and somatoform disorders (n=63). The General Health Behaviour Questionnaire measured behaviours and knowledge related to nutrition, physical activity, alcohol, smoking, sleep, life satisfaction and wellbeing. The normative sample were derived from a German population (N=1,019). Data were analysed using ANOVAs and t-tests. Results: The Palestine sample did not differ from the Western samples on reported life satisfaction and wellbeing. However they reported unhealthier diets, less physical activity, and lower knowledge about the impact of diet, physical activity, smoking and sleep on health than the Western samples. Comparing the Western and normative samples, people with mental illness reported lower intake of healthy foods/drinks, higher intake of unhealthy foods, higher exercise, higher alcohol consumption, smoked less cigarettes, had less sleep and reported more sleep problems. Their knowledge was lower for nutrition, physical activity, and smoking. All participants reported lower life satisfaction and wellbeing than the normative sample (P values <0.001). Conclusions: Education on health-related lifestyle factors present important targets for primary care, quality of

Robust Unsupervised Learning via L-statistic Minimization.

Designing learning algorithms that are resistant to perturbations of the underlying data distribution is a problem of wide practical and theoretical importance. We present a general approach to this problem focusing on unsupervised learning. The key assumption is that the perturbing distribution is characterized by larger losses relative to a given class of admissible models. This is exploited by a general descent algorithm which minimizes an L - statistic criterion over the model class, weighting small losses more. Our analysis characterizes the robustness of the method in terms of bounds on the reconstruction error relative to the underlying unperturbed distribution. As a byproduct, we prove uniform convergence bounds with respect to the proposed criterion for several popular models in unsupervised learning, a result which may be of independent interest. Numerical experiments with \textsc{kmeans} clustering and principal subspace analysis demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach

Describing socioeconomic gradients in children\u27s diets - does the socioeconomic indicators used matter?

Background:&nbsp;Children of low socioeconomic position (SEP) generally have poorer diets than children of high SEP.&nbsp;However there is no consensus on which SEP variable is most indicative of SEP differences in children&rsquo;s diets. This&nbsp;study investigated associations between diet and various SEP indicators among children aged 9&ndash;13 years.Method: Families (n = 625) were recruited from 27 Adelaide primary schools in 2010. Children completed&nbsp;semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaires providing intake scores for fruit, vegetables, non-core foods,&nbsp;sweetened drinks, and healthy and unhealthy eating behaviours. Parents reported demographic information by&nbsp;telephone interview. Differences in dietary intake scores were compared across parental education, income, occupation,&nbsp;employment status and home postcode.Results: Across most SEP indicators, lower SEP was associated with poorer dietary outcomes, including higher intake&nbsp;of non-core foods and sweetened drinks, and more unhealthy behaviours; and lower intake of fruit and vegetables,&nbsp;and fewer healthy behaviours. The number and type of significant SEP-diet associations differed across SEP indicators&nbsp;and dietary outcomes. Mother&rsquo;s education appeared most frequently as a predictor of children&rsquo;s dietary intake, and&nbsp;postcode was the least frequent predictor of children&rsquo;s dietary intake.Conclusion: Socioeconomic gradients in children&rsquo;s dietary intake varied according to the SEP indicator used,&nbsp;suggesting indicator-specific pathways of influence on children&rsquo;s dietary intake. Researchers should consider multiple&nbsp;indicators when defining SEP in relation to children&rsquo;s eating.</div

Comparison of school day eating behaviours of 8–11 year old children from Adelaide, South Australia, and London, England

Abstract: Objective: School food intake makes a considerable contribution to children’s overall diet, especially fruit and vegetable intake. Comparing differing school food provision systems can provide novel insights for intervention and improved nutrition policy. This study compared school day food in children from Australia and England. Design: Children completed food frequency questionnaires reporting school day food intake, breakfast intake and family evening meals. Differences in school day food intake consumed between Australia and England were evaluated. Multinomial logistic regressions compared fruit and vegetable intake, family dinner frequency and breakfast in Australian and English children adjusting for confounders: Age, sex, ethnicity and parent education. Setting: 27 Primary schools in Adelaide, Australia and 32 in London, England. Subjects: N = 772 children aged 8–11 years from the Australian REACH study (n = 347) and UK RHS School Gardening Trial in England (n = 425). Results: Considerably more English children reported consuming vegetables at school than Australian children (recess/lunchtime Australian children 3.4/6.1%; English children recess/lunctime 3.6/51.1%). However, Australian children were more likely to consume vegetables daily (OR = 4.1; 1.3, 12.5), and have family evening meals everyday [OR = 4.01; 1.88, 8.55], and were less likely to consume breakfast (OR = 0.26; 0.08, 0.79) than English children. Conclusions: Findings indicate that provision of a school lunch meal, compared to a packed lunch from home, may be more supportive of children’s vegetable intake. However, without a supportive home environment that encourages vegetable intake, children will not be able to consume sufficient amounts of vegetables

Consideration of nutritional value and food labels are associated with food intake in adults with depression

Background/Aims: Individuals with depression are more likely to consume poor diets and as a result are at increased risk of poor cardiometabolic health. Healthy diet may reduce depressive symptoms, however better understanding is needed of factors that support healthy eating in this population. There is limited evidence about how much consideration of the nutritional value of foods may be associated with food choices. The aim of this study was to investigate associations between food intake and consideration of nutritional value of foods in adults with depression. Methods: Adults (n = 161) with depression completed a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire and shopping and budgeting questionnaire. Associations between consideration of nutritional value and nutrition label use with vegetable, wholegrain, legume, snack food and soft drink intake were evaluated using linear regression, adjusting for age, gender and education. Results: In adjusted models, more consideration of the nutrition value of foods was positively associated with vegetable intake (β = 0.188; p = 0.025), wholegrain intake (β = 0.213; p = 0.015) and negatively associated with snack food intake (β = -0.236, p = 0.006). More frequent reading of nutrition labels was positively associated with legume intake (β = 0.185; p = 0.036). Better understanding of nutrition labels was positively associated with vegetable intake (β = 0.780; p = 0.035), wholegrain intake (β = 0.233; p = 0.008), and legume intake (β = 0.254; p = 0.004). There were no associations between soft drink intake and nutrition value consideration or nutrition label use. Conclusions: These findings suggest that increasing consideration of the nutrition value of foods and nutrition label use may support healthy eating in adults with depression

People with schizophrenia and depression have a low omega-3 index

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is higher in people with mental illness and is associated with a 30 year higher mortality rate in this population. Erythrocyte docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) plus eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) (omega-3 index)≤4% is a marker for increased mortality risk from CVD while \u3e8% is protective. Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids are also important for brain function and may ameliorate symptoms of mental illness. We investigated the erythrocyte omega-3 index in people with mental illness. One hundred and thirty adults aged 18-65 years (32.6% male) with schizophrenia (n=14) and depression (n=116) provided blood samples and completed physiological assessments and questionnaires. Both populations had risk factors for metabolic syndrome and CVD. The average omega-3 index was 3.95% (SD=1.06), compared to an estimated 5% in the Australian population. These data indicate an unfavourable omega-3 profile in people with mental illness that could contribute to higher CVD risk

Changes in diet, sleep, and physical activity are associated with differences in negative mood during COVID-19 lockdown

The United Kingdom and Scottish governments instigated a societal lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Subsequently, many experienced substantial lifestyle changes alongside the stresses of potentially catching the virus or experiencing bereavement. Stressful situations and poorer health behaviors (e.g., higher alcohol consumption, unhealthy diet, poorer sleep quality, physical inactivity) are frequently linked to poor mental health. Our objective was to examine changes in health behaviors and their relationship with negative mood during COVID-19 lockdown. We also considered associations between health behaviors and socio-demographic differences and COVID-19-induced changes. 399 participants completed a questionnaire asking about their personal situation and health behaviors during lockdown as well as a negative mood scale. The significance threshold for all analyses was α = 0.05. Poorer diet was linked to more-negative mood, and to changes to working status. Poorer sleep quality was linked with more-negative mood, and with ‘shielding’ from the virus. Being less physically active was related to more-negative mood and student status, whereas being more physically active was linked to having or suspecting COVID-19 infection within the household. Increased alcohol consumption was linked to living with children, but not to negative mood. Changes to diet, sleep quality, and physical activity related to differences in negative mood during COVID-19 lockdown. This study adds to reports on poor mental health during lockdown and identifies lifestyle restrictions and changes to health behaviors which may, to some extent, be responsible for higher negative mood. Our data suggests that it is advisable to maintain or improve health behaviors during pandemic-associated restrictions